JUST as in real life, you get what you pay for in the dolls house property market.

A few hundred pounds can acquire you a nice little suburban des res but if you have money to burn then you can have the stately home of your dreams in miniature.

They don’t come much more top of the range than the custom-made dolls houses created by Len Lewis who travelled from his base at Lincolnshire to display his wares at this year’s dolls house and miniatures fair held at the Leatherhead Leisure Centre. The most expensive property on show was his Sedgewick Hall at £1,295 but that was chicken feed to one he custom made for a very particular collector some time ago.

“The customer was a lady who wanted a South Carolina plantation house,” he recalled. “It was nearly six foot long and after I had made it she had it fitted out by professional interior designers and decorators. It was then insured for £45,000.

“If you want to you can pay as much for miniatures as you do for the real thing,” he went on. “A suite of furniture for a dolls house can easily cost £500. I know of a case where someone paid £2,500 for a model harpsichord.

“However, you can also buy a suite of furniture for £20. Everybody is catered for and it’s not a rich man’s hobby necessarily. We have made dolls houses of all sorts from mansions to humble cottages.”

The show, organised by the specialist magazine Dolls House World, featured around 80 stalls selling everything from dolls houses to intricate models of everything you would expect to find in a real home in the two recognised scales of 1/12th (one inch equals one foot) and 1/24th.

There were also stalls selling materials for the really keen hobbyists who prefer to make their own bits and bobs.

The magazine’s editor, Laura Quiggan, explained that dolls houses were originally created in the 18th century as a means of illustrating to young ladies the correct way of running a home.

“It’s a huge hobby and it is growing all the time,” she added. “The really encouraging thing is that more and more young people are taking it up.”

The stalls featured an incredible variety of household items for collectors to display in their dolls houses. There were miniature framed paintings at £39 and a tiny stuffed pike in a display case at £40.

A basket of eggs was £3.95 while for just 50p you could buy a miniature Daily Mirror dated December 10, 1980 with the front page lead story proclaiming the death of John Lennon in New York.

But for the really serious collector what could be more desirable than a tiny fine bone china eight place dinner service circa 1780 and perfect in every detail. A snip at just £373.20.